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Re: Things people say that irritate you

What I don't like is when people say "utilize" when "use" is fine. The word or expression should match the intent, but not overshoot it. When the situation calls for a big word because that word correctly captures the shading of meaning intended, then great; otherwise, economize.

Re: Things people say that irritate you

Re: Things people say that irritate you

One of the guys I've worked with for years says this:

"It's just like anything else."

He uses it to describe just about every situation he comes across. In one particular conversation (more like an argument), I asked him what he meant by that. (in a lot more colorful terms - I can't repeat here what I really said)

He had no answer. That made him even more angry. Especially, when I started to laugh

Re: Things people say that irritate you

Originally Posted by Scrap Irony

Can you tell I teach school?

"Teach school" is a bit weird...

But anyway, my latest pet peeve is the phrase "factually correct". Do we really have to specify when something is factually correct? Can something be correct in a factual way and incorrect in another way?

Re: Things people say that irritate you

Originally Posted by edabbs44

But anyway, my latest pet peeve is the phrase "factually correct". Do we really have to specify when something is factually correct? Can something be correct in a factual way and incorrect in another way?

Here you go.

While it is factually correct that Puffy is 40 years old now, he certainly doesn't act like a real life adult.

Hope that helps.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
~ Mark Twain

Re: Things people say that irritate you

In a lot of ways, I consider myself the poster boy for Being Easily Annoyed (or, to turn it into a phrase that might irk some of YOU, I have a perpetually Sandy Vagina).

Yet, seeing all these things listed and railed against in one place makes me realize I'm probably rather forgiving on this front. I think years of writing for audiences and trying to sort out what things I do are genuinely entertaining and what are genuinely hacky and what are cases where some idiotic (perhaps jealous) minority of said audience begins railing against MY beloved rhetorical crutches has led me to an a point of odd ambivilance on this issue: it's all just words, and what counts is the meaning behind the words. I'm not saying there shouldn't be some thought put into the packaging, I'm just saying: buy the product, not the box.

Or at least, if you're going to be taking the time to complain, it had better be about the content, and not about the presentation. That's what I have trained myself to believe, anyway.

To wit, there were two great examples named above: the "It is what it is" and the flaccid corporate-slang type stuff like "I don't disagree." On their own, both of those are the sorts of things that get my Slapping Hand all warmed up and tingly... but that's when I have to tell myself "settle down," perhaps someone is just being a tinch lazy or doesn't want to waste your time with a full explanation of their thoughts, so they are supplying an easy catch-all cliche, pending the presentation of an Insightful Follow-Up Question. So it's on *me* to figure out which is lacking here...

If I follow-up, and Spanky McGee can't expand upon his ideas, then fine: it was the CONTENT that was broken, and the crappy box he wrapped it in was an accurate representation. I simply file that away and remember to try to never talk to Spanky again, or to know ahead of time that he is bordering on clinical retardation anytime I do have to talk to him. If, however, I am rewarded with am amplification of precisely "what it is" and why that's relevent to our discussion beyond a merely reflexive statement like "blue is very blue," then I know not to outright dismiss Spanky for any future displays of rhetorical laziness.

In addition to trying to get to the core content/meaning rather than obsessing over the use of words, I'll sometimes outright antagonize people if I suspect I can do it easily and without really selling my soul to the devil. For instance, I'll regularly abuse some lesser rules (especially punctuation that creates "pauses" for the eyes, like elipses or double-dashes, and abuse of "filler words" like "actually" or "kind of") to create what I hope READS like my actual voice SOUNDS in a real conversation. To some, this is annoying as all get out, like the written word has some inherently greater value than the spoken one, and must be deified. Bleh to that: I figure the joke's on the hyper-reactive posers if I manage to annoy them that badly with "Conversational Typing." It's not like I'm going 100% tard and emoticonning and LOL'ing in the name of "convenience."

Also: I purposely misuse the word "literally" as often as I can. But when I say "misuse" I mean REALLY misuse, leaving no doubt to anybody that even I (literally as dumb as a houseplant) must have done it on purpose. I think it's funny. I blame this on intense over-exposure to Gorilla Monsoon when I was in elementary school.

Re: Things people say that irritate you

1. Nouns are not verbs. It drives me nuts when people use them as verbs. One recent one is a radio commercial about wearing pink for breast cancer awareness and they're saying "Who do you pink for?" Every time I hear it I want to scream at the radio, "Pink is not a verb!"

Re: Things people say that irritate you

Originally Posted by fourrunhomer

1. Nouns are not verbs. It drives me nuts when people use them as verbs. One recent one is a radio commercial about wearing pink for breast cancer awareness and they're saying "Who do you pink for?" Every time I hear it I want to scream at the radio, "Pink is not a verb!"

When people call adjectives nouns.

I don't like the corporate trend of making nouns out of adjectives. The word "deliverables" drives me up a wall and it's marketing cousin "botanicals" isn't far behind.

Burn down the disco. Hang the blessed DJ. Because the music that he constantly plays, it says nothing to me about my life.

Re: Things people say that irritate you

Originally Posted by fourrunhomer

1. Nouns are not verbs. It drives me nuts when people use them as verbs. One recent one is a radio commercial about wearing pink for breast cancer awareness and they're saying "Who do you pink for?" Every time I hear it I want to scream at the radio, "Pink is not a verb!"

When people call adjectives nouns.

Actually, I appreciate and enjoy creative language expression as long as the meaning is not totally blurred. Formal language expression can be boring. Creative language can be used to create humor and poetry to our language.

Re: Things people say that irritate you

I don't like the phrase "this is a win-win" proposition. Yes, sometimes both sides win, but that usually isn't the case when someone tries to convince everyone to agree by insisting that it is a "win-win" deal.
"Aren't I" is a phrase that has always amused me. The speaker presumably would not say "I are......", but in trying to avoid saying "I ain't" and not knowing to say "am I not," "aren't I" is the phrase spoken.

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